Contra Costa NOW

Join Us for the 2026 State Conference – https://mailchi.mp/…/save-the-date-statewide-conference…

Jennifer Cruz

     Jennifer Cruz is from Richmond.  She did not take the typical path to her studies at Diablo Valley College.  As a latina woman she experienced setbacks.  The Lao Family Community Development Organization helped her.  She was admitted to a 14 week Cybersecurity Training which was followed by a 150 hour paid internship.  Although she experienced housing instability, lacked reliable transportation and at times had to work 2 jobs she was able to complete the program.. She plans to use her scholarship to continue her studies at Diablo Valley College.

Smitha Chandrasekhar

 Smitha Chandrasekhar is from San Ramon.  She graduated from the University of Washington iSeattle with a major in General Biology.   Smitha has worked with her mother through a program called Maitri which is an advocacy group based in the SF Bay Area for women from eight South Asian communities who are experiencing Domestice Violence  While volunteering there she had a podcast, Policy Matters, and advocated for the Child Marriage Prohibition Act of 2024.  Learning about the CA mandated reporting act through her work in healthcare she noticed the lack in services that were available after medical staff were obligated to report their patients’ domestic partnership violence.  While at U of W decided to Study Abroad in England and focused on how publicly accessible healthcare differs on a global level.  This led to her being a clinical research aid who focused on better treatment and outcomes for (HGSOC) high grade serous ovarian cancer.   In the fall she will be attending the Keck School of Medicine at USC.   

NOW Hear This

Message from National NOW President Kim Villanueva

April 3, 2026

On Wednesday, I was proud to stand with our movement allies outside the U.S. Supreme Court to protest Donald Trump’s illegal, illogical, and unconstitutional attack on birthright citizenship.

Denying citizenship to people born in the United States is racist. Full stop.

But attacks on birthright citizenship don’t just target immigrants — they also put women, children, and entire families at risk.

We’ve seen what happens when rights get chipped away. If citizenship can be denied at birth, every other right becomes more fragile.

And that’s exactly what’s at stake.

Defining who America is for — and who it will include — has never been more urgent, especially for those who have been systematically excluded and subjected to discrimination and injustice.

Protesting outside the Court, while Trump sat inside on a red-cushioned bench, I thought about last weekend’s historic No Kings actions. Trump may see himself as an emperor, but America is not his empire. It belongs to all of us, and to generations who have fought — as we are fighting now — to uphold equality, democracy, and justice.

We are defining this country through our actions, as NOW members and as part of powerful, broad-based coalitions working to protect our democracy.

Trump is trying to consolidate power by undermining elections, pressuring Congress to advance the SAVE Act, and pushing policies that decide whose votes count and whose don’t.

This week, he even signed an executive order aimed at creating a national voter database and restricting mail-in voting — even as he and his family votes by mail themselves.

And NOW will not rest until the Equal Rights Amendment is fully recognized as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. 

From No Kings to the Supreme Court, it’s been a relentless week. Thank you for everything you do, every day, to power our movement forward.

Until justice is ours,

Kim Villanueva

Click on the link below to find out if your representative has cosponsored HJ Resolution 80 – Establishing the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Cosponsors

Events Through Mobilize:
mobilize.us

Local Indivisible Chapters:

Indivisible TriValley
https://www.indivisibletrivalley.org/

Indivisible West Contra Costa County
https://equalrights4all.us/iwccc/

Indivisible ReSisters Contra Costa
https://indivisibleresisters.org/

Dear Rainbow Community,

We are thrilled to introduce ourselves as the new Co-Executive Directors of Rainbow Community Center. It is an honor to serve this incredible community and to continue building on the vital work that has been done to uplift, support, and empower everyone we serve.

Together, we’re committed to fostering inclusivity, creating safe spaces, and expanding the programs that make a real impact in people’s lives. We look forward to working with you, listening to your ideas, and continuing to grow as a community.

Thank you for your unwavering support, and we are excited for what lies ahead!

En comunidad,

Jorge & Cori

Co-Executive Directors

Rainbow Community Center Mental Health Services

If you or someone you know is seeking mental health services, Rainbow Community Center offers sessions with licensed professionals specializing in LGBTIQA2S+ affirming therapy.

To register, please visit our webpage and complete our intake form.

Rainbow Community Center offers immediate appointments with our dedicated mental health clinicians. Your support in sharing this information with those who may benefit is greatly appreciated.

NOW Hear This: September 13, 2024 Newsletter

Message from National NOW President Christian F. Nunes

Greetings Feminists,

One of the most important conversations NOW chapters can have with members right now is about what’s at stake in this election.  I wrote an article for Newsweek this week about this, and you can read it here. 

“When women are elected,” I wrote, “we see more public policy decisions made that benefit everyone, closing gender gaps, advancing economic growth, and strengthening workplace protections, making it easier to live and work in a society where opportunity is available for all.”

I believe we’re seeing a shift in our politics away from pure partisanship, and more towards what’s being called “values-based voters,” motivated by their most deeply held beliefs and the threats they see to their basic rights.  We need to talk about this election in terms of what it means to the core issues that unite us as NOW members, and how we can elect leaders who will fight alongside us for racial justice, reproductive rights, economic justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, ending violence against women and constitutional equality.

We’ve been talking in recent weeks about how “women will save democracy,” and in part that’s because women are the largest group of registered voters in America—and turn out in the highest numbers at the ballot box.  That’s because women know how important it is to solve the most urgent problems that keep us from achieving our goals and securing our future.

This week, NOW joined civil rights and issue-based advocacy groups to storm the halls of Congress for a lobbying day to demand action on the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, DC Statehood and the Native American Voting Rights Act, to  ensure that every American has an equal opportunity to make their voices heard at the ballot box.

This new survey from Glamour/YouGov shows that the top three issues for women in this election are the economy, health care, and the cost of housing.

“Across the board…” the survey found, “women spoke about the economy in personal terms: what it cost them, what they could or couldn’t afford. And it often included issues like paid leave and affordable childcare. Health care, too, was seen in terms of prescription costs, though the Black maternal health crisis was a major issue.”

Another conclusion?  “Paid family leave continues to be one of the most popular—and unifying—policies in the country.”

NOW’s intersectional feminist agenda is on the ballot this fall.  Voters

can make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them by turning out in record numbers.    That’s the conversation we need to be having with NOW members—and they in turn can have it with others.  

In Solidarity
Christian F. Nunes
President

Haley Solis is an undergraduate student at Stanford University, where she is pursuing a degree in Environmental Systems Engineering.  She attended Hercules High School where she founded their Environmental Club.  One of her accomplishments while she was in high school was to implement a composting program.  This was no easy feat as it required her to coordinate with the school district’s unionized custodial staff.  She also set up composting programs for several small businesses in her community. 

One of our previous winners in 2021 Thyra Cobbs earned her Baccalaureate Degree in African American Studies at UCLA.  At UCLA she currently is a McNair Scholar and also serves as Chairperson of the African Student Union.  Thyra has been accepted to continue her studies at UCLA in their African American M. A. Program.  Thyra is from the Brentwood area of Contra Costa County.

Each winner received a $1,000 scholarship.

NOW Celebrates Juneteenth

June 19, 2024

Juneteenth, the day that marks of the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War has been celebrated by African Americans since the late 1800s, but it wasn’t until 2021 that it became a federal holiday.

President Biden signed legislation to make June 19th a federal holiday that year, following the renewed demand for attention to be paid following the death of George Floyd the previous summer.  Standing beside him was 93-year old Opal Lee, “the Grandmother of Juneteenth,” who as this NPR story explains, had waged a decades-long fight to make Juneteenth a U.S. holiday.

After decades of working on Juneteenth celebrations in her home state of Texas, with the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society, at the age of 89 she decided to “spread the word about Juneteenth to everybody.” She set out on a walking campaign from her home in Forth Worth to Washington, D.C.

“I was thinking that surely, somebody would see a little old lady in tennis shoes trying to get to Congress and take notice,” she said. What became annual walks culminated in a trip to the Capitol to deliver a petition signed by 1.5 million Americans supporting a federal holiday.

You can learn more about Opal Lee, and about today’s Opal’s Walk 2024 here.  And you can meet Opal Lee in this  video from just this past Friday showing her recent Forth Worth homecoming.

Of course, having a federal holiday to commemorate the date that enslaved Africans and African Americans in Texas learned of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t mean that white supremacy has been put to rest. Black Americans are continuously mistreated and harmed by systemic racism, discrimination and denial of opportunity at every level. 

Vice President Harris has declared this Juneteenth as one of three National Days of Action on Voting. With a focus on voter engagement, these National Days of Action on Voting aim to ensure all Americans have the information they need to vote, promote voter participation for students, protect election workers, and fight voter suppression laws. Other National Days of Action on Voting are the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 2024 and National Voter Registration Day on September 17, 2024.

Juneteenth has always been a family celebration with an eye on history.  This November, we can change the course of history and keep the spirit of Juneteenth alive by electing more Black women!  And more leaders who will fight for equality.

In solidarity,
Christian F. Nunes
President